About Craniosacral Therapy
- Who can benefit from Craniosacral Therapy?
- What is Craniosacral Therapy?
- What happens in a session?
- What can it treat and is it safe?
- How long does a session last?
- When will I feel the benefit?
- I can't comfortably lie down, can I still have treatment?
- I can't get to your clinics, can you visit me?
- How many sessions will I need?
- How much does treatment cost?
- I'm already receiving other treatment. Will it matter?
Frequently Asked Questions
Q. Who can benefit from Craniosacral Therapy?
Everyone can benefit from Craniosacral Therapy. We all have a Craniosacral system, which nourishes and sustains us and is influenced by many things such as our birth, family background, lifestyle, accidents, injuries, together with the day-to-day ups and downs of modern living.
The many stresses we face today not only affect our physical tissues, but also our sense of self and how we feel about life. When too much pressure is placed upon us, whether physically or mentally, we can struggle to meet the strain and our body and emotional systems defend us by containing the trauma and separating it off from the rest of us. This may be experienced as stress and anxiety, aches and pains, or dysfunction in organs and bodily tissues. Yet, Craniosacral Therapy considers people as an integrated whole, recognising that we are mind and body, thoughts and feelings and as such our health is complex.
Craniosacral treatment can enable our body and mind to process our life experiences, and particularly traumatic ones, more effectively. So, whether young or old, fit or unwell, Craniosacral Therapy helps us to have more resources available when we need them.
As well as helping with a range of physiological and emotional problems, Craniosacral Therapy can be particularly relevant when we are undergoing great change. For example, during pregnancy and birth, in early babyhood, when moving home, changing job or grieving the loss of a loved one.
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Q. What is Craniosacral Therapy?
Craniosacral Therapy has been gradually growing and developing as a discipline for about the last 100 years. It was in the late 1930s that William Garner Sutherland, an osteopath, first developed the practice of Cranial Osteopathy, and suggested that the movement of the bones of the cranium was directly related to our state of health and that their motion reflected something that he referred to as ‘the breath of life’.
Craniosacral Therapy today is an extremely gentle form of ‘whole body’ treatment that grew out of this work. Craniosacral therapists assert that each of us, as living organisms; our cells, organs and bodily systems, express an intrinsic, subtle form of motion which reflects our state of physical, mental and emotional health.
Craniosacral treatment therefore involves a very gentle touch of the therapist’s hands upon appropriate parts of the body, usually including the head and spine, in order to perceive ‘Craniosacral motion’, the rhythmic change in qualities and connectedness which is communicated by all our bodily tissues.
Whilst every life experience has an influence upon this movement, it is the most traumatic that leave a lasting impression, leading to dysfunction and, ultimately, symptoms of illness and disease. Therefore, by working with this inherent motion, Craniosacral Therapy can help us to let go of restrictive patterns and to experience better health.
Over the years many others have built upon Sutherland's work, taking therapeutic practice with the Craniosacral System in related, yet subtly different directions. Some of these include James Jealous, John Upledger, Franklyn Sills and Thomas Attlee. Within these divergent schools of thought, practitioners can be referred to as Cranial Osteopaths and Craniosacral Therapists, yet often the experience of treatment from one or the other may differ very little.
Within the UK, the practice of Craniosacral Therapy and Craniosacral Therapists is grouped into two main camps: colleges and practitioners registered with the Craniosacral Therapy Association of the UK and those registered with the the Upledger Insitute. Whereas Cranial Osteopaths are more likely to be affiliated with the the UK Sutherland Society.
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Q. What happens in a session?
An initial session will begin with an exploration of the reasons why you are seeking treatment, whether this is a particular set of symptoms or something less tangible. Discussion of your health history can also be particularly beneficial, highlighting patterns in your experience that may relate to or shed some light on your current situation.
Treatment then usually entails you lying down, fully clothed, in a relatively peaceful environment. I then make contact with your system with my hands placed upon various areas of your body, often including your head, areas along your spine, or perhaps one or more limbs, depending upon your symptoms and areas of the body that are a problem for you. The contact is extremely gentle and has to be in order to tune in to Craniosacral motion and the qualities inherent in your system.
Treatment is usually felt as being peaceful and calming. Indeed, both individual sessions and courses of treatment generally lead towards greater states of relaxation. However, individuals experience Craniosacral treatment in different ways, some feeling tingling sensations, others colours or memories, feelings and emotions. When treatment addresses major past trauma, the processing and integration required may not be relaxing, yet the structure of each session allows for resolution to occur and a new equilibrium to be reached.
Subsequent sessions then often contain elements of talking, hands-on work and stillness, with the combination depending upon how treatment is progressing for the individual.
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Q. What can it treat and is it safe?
Physical Complaints such as headaches & migraines, glue ear, back pain, sciatica, frozen shoulder, post-surgery recovery, colic; Emotional Issues such as stress and anxiety, nervousness and depression; Debilitating Illnesses such as ME, Parkinson's and MS; Life Changes that may include pregnancy and birth (preparation for birth and relieving the effects of birth trauma), moving home or bereavement.
Here is a more comprehensive list of just some of the reasons why people choose Craniosacral Therapy:
- Aches and pains
- Arthritis
- Back pain
- Birth trauma
- Bone/Joint disorders
- Breathing problems
- Cerebral Palsy
- Chronic pain
- Colic
- Dental problems
- Depression
- Digestive disorders
- Emotional problems
- Exhaustion
- Frozen shoulder
- Headaches
- Hormonal imbalances
- Insomnia
- Learning difficulties
- ME
- Menstrual pain
- Migraines
- Nervous disorders
- Post-surgical recovery
- Rheumatism
- Sciatica
- Sinusitis
- Spinal curvatures
- Stress
- Temporomandibular disorder
Craniosacral Therapy is believed to be one of the safest treatments available today. Certainly, its gentleness and non-manipulative approach mean that it is particularly suitable for the most physically vulnerable, such as babies and those in very painful conditions.
However, safety is about more than just absence of physical harm. Suitably trained Craniosacral practitioners recognise that part of treatment is about creating an appropriately safe environment both physically and emotionally, so as to facilitate healing that is deeper and more wholly integrated.
A core principle of my approach is one of helping your system do the work and coming from a place that acknowledges a ‘wisdom in the body’ – in the cells, tissues, organs and systems. Treatment then consists of listening to what the system is doing and strengthening its processes through subtle contact and a trust in the ability of a healing that comes from within as well as without.
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Q. How long does a session last?
An initial session for an adult usually lasts for up to 90mins, with subsequent sessions generally being up to 60mins.
For young children, usually up to around 10 years, a first session up to 60mins in length, with subsequent visits lasting for up to 30 mins.
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Q. When will I feel the benefit?
The effectiveness of Craniosacral Therapy depends greatly upon your personal circumstances and your reason for treatment. Many acute conditions such as aches and pains from falls or minor injuries, glue ear or colic are often much improved in just a few sessions. Longer term, chronic, deep-seated imbalances may only respond to a course of treatment over a series of weeks or months.
Craniosacral Therapy can work for you in a number of ways at the same time. People generally find the individual sessions themselves highly relaxing, helping to lower stress levels, relieving aching muscles and joints and decreasing anxiety. Yet the deeper processes stimulated by the treatment can take longer to fully integrate into your experience of life and health. A course of treatment often has a cumulative benefit, with one session building upon processes undertaken on previous occasions and so the move to better health can follow a different course for each individual.
Mostly significantly, many people have reported that their health was initially changed in ways that they did not expect and so sometimes our reasons for seeking treatment may run deeper than we initially realise and may have much wider effects for us and our quality of life.
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Q. I can't comfortably lie down, can I still have treatment?
To receive Craniosacral treatment all you need is to be able to relax into a comfortable position. This can be sitting, reclining or lying down. Treatment can be given whilst you are on a couch, in a chair or a wheel chair, providing you can relax your posture and are not engaged in some other form of activity.
For young children who may be constantly on the move, contact is likewise made ‘on the move’ and a range of toys and books can be used to engage the child whilst treatment is taking place.
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Q. I can't get to your clinics, can you visit me?
Not at present. All sessions take place in clinics.
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Q. How many sessions will I need?
Craniosacral Therapy is tailored to the individual and their particular state of health, so the number of sessions required will vary from person to person. In general, acute conditions often respond well in just a few sessions, yet more chronic conditions may require a series of treatments to gain the full benefit from the therapy’s cumulative effects.
Two people receiving treatment for the same condition may travel very different roads to improvement and recovery. Ultimately your destination will be determined by you. For example, treatment to relieve a bad back may help to alleviate pain in just one or two weekly sessions. Yet it is often the case that discomfort or pain is only the ‘outer layer’ of other, deeper aspects of imbalance in the person’s system or lifestyle and so it may be that longer term, less frequent sessions may help to address these issues.
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Q. How much does treatment cost?
Adults & Older Children
First session (up to 90mins) £50.
Follow up sessions (up to 60mins)£40
Introductory 20-30 min taster treatments are also available at £25.
Babies & Young Children
First session (up to 60mins) £35
Follow up sessions (up to 30mins) £25.
Mother & Baby
In the first few months after birth, it can be beneficial for mother and baby to both have treatment at the same time.
First session (up to 90mins) £50
Follow ups as per individual sessions.
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Q. I'm already receiving other treatment. Will it matter?
Craniosacral Therapy, with its gentleness, subtlety and ability to work with the body's own healing mechanisms can complement many other forms of treatment. If in doubt, please get in touch or speak to your existing practitioner.
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